The first debate between Bolsonaro and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who are contesting the second round that will define the next President of Brazil, had attacks and accusations about fake news, corruption and mismanagement of the pandemic.
At the beginning, former president Lula da Silva recalled that Brazil recorded 11% of deaths caused by covid-19 in the world, although it has 3% of the world population, trying to expose what he considered poor public health management by the government led. by Bolsonaro.
Lula da Silva called his opponent “King of ‘Fake News’” and “King of Stupidity” and said that Bolsonaro “delayed the vaccine”, in an act of “negligence [that] caused the death of 600,000 people, when more than half could have been saved.”
Rebutting accusations of mismanagement and coldness in the face of the suffering of infected Brazilians, Bolsonaro said that he was “moved by each death”, that in his mandate “more than 500 million [doses of] vaccines were purchased” and that Brazil was “the most country that has vaccinated the most in the world”.
Bolsonaro once again devalued public recommendations for the use of drugs without proven effectiveness to combat the pandemic, such as chloroquine, alleging an alleged right of doctors to prescribe drugs “whether or not scientific proof”.
The current president alleged that Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party was related to leaders of organized crime factions in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and spoke with irony of an event his campaign held in one of the largest conglomerates of favelas. in Rio de Janeiro, the Complexo do Alemão.
“You are friends with bandits. In the favela, there were no police on their side, only drug dealers,” Bolsonaro shot Lula da Silva, in one of the most tense moments of the first block of the debate.
Lula da Silva negotiated links to organized crime, reiterated that he went to Complexo do Alemão, which had only working people by his side, and promised to return to that favela in Rio de Janeiro.
Video of an interview in which Bolsonaro made inappropriate comments about a visit to young Venezuelans in a favela, which Lula da Silva supporters saw as demonstrating an association of the President with pedophilia, a topic that was hotly debated over the weekend, was cited by President himself, who claimed to have been the target of false news and false claims.
Bolsonaro made a point of mentioning a decision by the president of the Superior Electoral Court, Alexandre de Moraes, who ordered the Lula da Silva campaign to remove a video about the controversy.
Lula da Silva said Bolsonaro had to do a live broadcast, on social media in the early hours of Sunday, to explain why he lied when associating young Venezuelans with prostitution, but recalled that he used a ‘pin’ from the campaign against sexual abuse and exploitation. of children and adolescents in Brazil.
Both Lula da Silva and Bolsonaro said they had no interest in increasing the number of judges in the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
This is one of the most controversial topics in the Brazilian election because Bolsonaro supporters revealed a project to increase the number of STF judges, an idea that a large part of Brazilian public opinion considered a threat and an attempt to co-opt the judiciary, as would have happened in Hungary. and in Venezuela.
“We already had experience in the dictatorship of changing the Supreme Court […] It is not democratic for a President of the Republic to want to have Supreme Court ministers as friends”, said Lula.
“On my part, the commitment is made, there will be no proposal,” Bolsonaro said.
Questioned by journalists about the relationship they intend to maintain with Congress, since both have responded to accusations of corruption and misuse of public money in exchange for support from parliamentarians, the candidates adopted different strategies.
The current President stated that he is not responsible for the secret budget, a practice initiated in his government that consists of allowing parliamentarians to indicate, without providing transparency, where the Executive’s resources will be applied in exchange for support in votes in Congress, a practice that is being investigated on suspicion of corruption.
“If I buy [a deputy], he will vote with me. The budget was created by [deputy] Rodrigo Maia, I wanted it to be in my hands. I would never give money to this group if they weren’t voting with me,” Bolsonaro said.
Former President Lula da Silva, whose first government was involved in the vote-buying scheme known as Mensalão, stressed the importance of dealing with the Congress elected by the Brazilian population and said he would carry out a participatory budget.
“It is with those who have a mandate that the executive government relates. I will try to end the secret budget with a participatory budget, sending the people to give their opinion, saying what they effectively want to see being done”, proposed the former president.
Promoted by TV Bandeirantes, Folha de S.Paulo newspaper, UOL portal, and TV Cultura, the first debate of the second round of the elections had three blocks, with questions from journalists and two moments, of 30 minutes each, in which the candidates were able to debate freely.
Lula and Bolsonaro face off in the second round of the presidential elections on October 30.
The latest poll, released on Friday, indicates that former union leader Lula da Silva has a five-point lead over Bolsonaro.
